November 2016
Comments

ANON
Nov 30th, 2016 @ 12:21 PM

The mother of a
child who was raped by her uncle over a seven-year period has
described how the abuse has caused a crack in her family “that no
time will ever heal”.

In a victim
impact statement read in the Central Criminal Court, she said she
would never get over the fact her brother repeatedly raped her
daughter from when she was aged seven to 14.

“To my
brother,” the woman’s statement read, “my world shattered the day I
learned the secret my baby girl had been carrying for so many
years. I couldn’t believe my brother could hurt his own sister’s
daughter, his niece...

“I had stranger
danger talks with my daughter. I never thought that I would have to
warn her about someone I thought I could trust.”

The 25-year-old
man from the Midlands pleaded guilty to three counts of sexual
assault and seven counts of raping his niece between January 2007
and August 2014.

The court heard
the girl looked up to her uncle and the pair grew up together like
“brother and sister”.

A local
detective told Fiona McGowan BL, prosecuting, that the abuse began
with sexual misconduct in the form of kissing and inappropriate
touching when the girl was seven years old and her uncle was
15.

It progressed
to rape and anal rape, with incidents taking place in a relative’s
house, in a treehouse in their grandparents’ garden, and in the
girl’s house when her uncle was babysitting her.

At one point,
the abuse stopped for a couple of years when the man had a
girlfriend, but it resumed when that relationship ended.

ANON Nov
30th, 2016 @ 12:19 PM

2/2...The
abuse ended in August 2014 when the girl disclosed what had been
happening to her. When questioned by gardaí, her uncle made full
and immediate admissions, the detective said.

In her victim
impact statement the victim, now 17, said: “I grew up with a shadow
behind me. It’s a shadow that grew bigger and bigger as I grew
older. I had to carry it with me. The shadow took away my innocence
and it took away my confidence in myself.”

She said her
rapist was like a brother to her.

“I trusted him.
I thought he was so cool,” she said.

The girl said
she felt guilty at the effect the abuse had had on her extended
family.

“We were a
really close family and now we are broken.”

She said her
relationship with her grandmother has particularly suffered. The
court heard the man’s parents support their son.

The man told
gardaí he always felt “terrible” after each incident of abuse, the
court heard.

Ms McGowan
said: “He said he always felt awful for days afterwards and
contemplated suicide over this.”

Mary Rose
Gearty SC, defending, told the court the man had received extensive
therapy and counselling since the abuse came to light.

“He knows he is
going to jail,” Ms Gearty said. “His motivation has been to make
sure this doesn’t happen again, for his own sake and for the sake
of his extended family.”

She noted the
man was a child when he began the abuse. She said he was extremely
remorseful. He has no previous convictions.

Judge Patrick
McCarthy adjourned for sentencing on December 16. Ms Gearty said
her client wished to be taken into custody immediately to start
whatever sentence was handed down.

His victim and
her mother cried and embraced as he was taken into custody, as did
the victim’s grandparents.

ANON Nov
30th, 2016 @ 12:16 PM

1/2...Drug
use and sex at care home for children…

Tusla says it
will address deficits in a residential children’s care home in
which absences from care were rampant and inspectors voiced
concerns over inappropriate sexual behaviour, phone access, and
alcohol and drug use.

The inspection
of the Ferryhouse children’s residential centre in Clonmel, Co
Tipperary, uncovered serious concerns over how staff at the
facility were addressing challenging behaviour among the children
staying there; and found a significant risk had been identified
under four headings, including ‘care of young people’.

The inspection
report, published by the Health Information and Quality Authority
(Hiqa), looked at the centre, which provided residential care for
up to 15 boys aged 12 to 16 and which, at the time of the
unannounced inspections in August and September, had nine young
people staying there.

It is
understood Minister for Children Katherine Zappone wrote to Tusla
chief executive Fred McBride last week in relation to the centre,
expressing concern at ineffective risk management systems and
seeking information from Tusla about its long-term plans for the
facility.

Inspectors
found that “a number of children were engaged in a wide range of
high-risk behaviours”, with 409 significant adverse events recorded
over the previous year, including sexualised behaviour, missing
from care, at risk behaviours, physical restraint, and alcohol and
substance misuse.

ANON Nov
30th, 2016 @ 12:14 PM

2/2...While
there had been 10 incidents of children being absent from the
centre in a 12-month period up to a previous inspection in July
2015, the rate had spiralled, with 277 incidents of children being
absent from the centre in the 12 months prior to this
inspection.

According to
the report: “There was an increase in highly inappropriate
sexualised behaviours, alcohol and drug use, criminal activities,
and incidents of violence. Some children were exposed to behaviours
and situations that were higher risk than the situations they were
removed from. One child was remanded to a children’s detention
centre as a result of behaviours engaged in while at the
centre.”

Children were
not kept safe from the risk of significant harm and “records showed
that staff did not intervene during some of these very serious
incidents and observed from a distance while children engaged in
at-risk behaviour”.

Staff were
unable to remove phones from children and effectively supervise
their use, meaning children could access unsuitable internet
content. A total of 34 child protection referrals were made to
social work departments and a review of files of two children in
the centre found a number of concerns that had not been reported to
the respective social work department.

Often when
children absconded, they frequently went to a nearby river bank,
sometimes under the influence of alcohol, with parents telling
inspectors that they were very worried for their child’s safety
during these incidents.

Jim Gibson,
chief operations officer in Tusla, acknowledged the shortcomings at
the centre and said: “In conjunction with Hiqa, we have created and
begun to implement an action plan to address the deficits
identified.”

This includes
the instigation of monitoring visits and no further admissions to
the service until Tusla and Hiqa are satisfied that care measures
have reached the required standard. hiqa.ie

A man allegedly
subjected to sexual abuse at a Co Down children's home more than 50
years ago is to receive £22,500 to settle his legal
action.

The 66-year-old
claims he suffered a serious psychiatric injury due to his
treatment as a boy staying at Rubane House in
Kircubbin.

He sued the De
La Salle religious order who ran the home, seeking damages for a
"serious and persistent" alleged campaign.

It was
confirmed at the High Court in Belfast on Tuesday that his lawsuit
has seen resolved.

Solicitor
Claire McKeegan of KRW Law, representing the plaintiff, announced a
settlement for the sum of £22,500.

The man, who
cannot be identified, is also to receive his legal
costs.

No admission of
liability was made by the defendants.

Rubane House
was among the homes examined by the Historical Institutional Abuse
(HIA) Inquiry set up to investigate decades of child abuse in
residential institutions in Northern Ireland.

It was
estimated that 200 of Rubane's 1,050 former residents have made
allegations of serious sexual or physical abuse.

One of those
was the plaintiff, who stayed there during the 1960s.

His lawsuit
featured claims that he was subjected to physical, emotional and
sexual abuse from the age of 11.

Two of the De
La Salle brothers associated with the home at that time were named
in the legal papers as the alleged perpetrators.

But following
announced settlement his case will not proceed to
trial.29 November
2016

ANON Nov
29th, 2016 @ 12:20 PM

Sexually
abused children wait 18 months for therapy…

Children who
have been sexually abused are being forced to wait up to 18 months
for therapy because of a shortage of funding.

Cari (Children
At Risk in Ireland) has demanded the Government step in with
one-off funding of €200,000 to clear a crippling
backlog.

Cari also said
it had seen a growth in the number of children aged 12 and under
who have been referred to it because of sexualised behaviour, but
where there is no evidence of abuse pointing to the possible
influence of pornography and inappropriate content
online.

Cari will
launch its annual report today, highlighting lengthening waiting
times for therapy because of a backlog caused by a funding
shortfall and warning that unless it is tackled, it may have to
close off its services to vulnerable children until it can reduce
the number of young people on its waiting list.

The
organisation’s chief executive, Mary Flaherty, said there are
currently 92 children on its waiting list for therapy, a similar
number to a year ago and at a time when Cari has capacity to deal
with 50 children a year.

Cari has
centres in Dublin and Limerick and offers services to young people
aged between five and 17, although it did see a three-year-old last
year who is no longer on its list.

“About a
quarter of all referrals are under-12s who have sexualised
behaviour,” she said. “The trouble with that group is they should
not be waiting at all.”

Ms Flaherty
said ideally children should not wait longer than six months
between assessment and receiving therapy, yet Cari’s waiting times
had extended from eight or nine months to as long as 18
months.

“If Tusla does
not provide additional funding for 2017, Cari may have to think of
the unthinkable and consider closing the waiting list until waiting
times are reduced to a clinically approved level,” she
said.

It managed an
18% increase in appointments in 2015 and said the numbers waiting
for therapy had also increased a trend that has continued into
2016.

The annual
report will also highlight the work of Cari’s child accompaniment
support service and shows “excessive” and “unnecessary” court
delays for children in criminal trials who are victims.

ANON Nov
29th, 2016 @ 12:16 PM

1/2...Jail
for stepfather who assaulted girl over 3 years…

A man who put a
dog lead around his step daughter’s neck while sexually assaulting
her as a child has been jailed for two and half years.

George Crombie,
aged 47, also had a knife stuck in the waistband of his pyjama
bottoms during a separate assault.

He told his
stepdaughter there would be “murder in this flat” if she told her
mother about the abuse, which took place over a three-year period
when she was aged between 10 and 13.

Last week,
Laura Johnston, now in her 20s, read her victim impact statement to
the court, in which she condemned Crombie for “betraying her trust
and love in him”.

“How could I
ever get over what my stepfather, who I loved and trusted, did to
me as a 10-year-old girl?” said Ms Johnston.

The court heard
she wished to waive her right to anonymity.Crombie, with
an address in Bloomfield Ave, South Circular Rd, Dublin 8, pleaded
guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to eight counts of sexually
assaulting Ms Johnston in their Ringsend home between February 2004
and December 2006.

Yesterday,
Judge Melanie Greally said it was clear Crombie was satisfying a
particular sexual fetish during the assaults and referred to the
use of the dog lead as “extremely frightening” and
“degrading”.

She said Ms
Johnston had regarded Crombie as her natural father and that as
such the “breach of trust was monumental” before she described the
abuse as both “unrelenting” and “predictable” occurring every
Thursday and Saturday.

ANON Nov
29th, 2016 @ 12:14 PM

2/2...Judge
Greally said that, having heard the impact statement, it was clear
Ms Johnston would continue to struggle with the “premature loss of
innocence” and “blight on her childhood that can never be
removed”.

She
acknowledged that Crombie had made admissions and spared his victim
a trial before she imposed concurrent sentences totalling two and
half years.

Garda Sandra
Fitzgerald agreed with Dean Kelly, prosecuting at last week’s
hearing, that Crombie had been with Ms Johnston’s mother since she
was a small child and Ms Johnston had younger
half-siblings.

The court heard
Ms Johnston thought Crombie was her real father until she was 10,
when her mother told her he was in fact her stepfather. When told
the news, Ms Johnston showed her support for Crombie by ripping up
the birth cert that said he was not her real father.

“She indicated
she saw [Crombie] as her real father and she had no difficulty with
the news she had received,” Mr Kelly said.

However,
shortly after finding out Crombie was not her father, he started
acting differently towards her, the court heard.

“He started
questioning her about her friends and boys,” Mr Kelly
said.

Crombie then
started going into her bedroom when her mother and siblings were
asleep and touching Ms Johnston while she was lying in bed, the
court heard. The abuse happened every Thursday and Saturday night,
when Crombie had been out drinking.

He entered her
bedroom and touched her stomach, legs and bottom while she lay in
bed. She believed he had a fetish for stomachs and bottoms, Mr
Kelly said

ANON Nov
29th, 2016 @ 12:12 PM

1/2...Victim
begs for rape crisis funding…

As a
nine-year-old child, Anne Kelly would lie in bed at night terrified
that a baby was about to burst through her belly
button.

Her mother had
told her this was how babies were born.

Anne had become
convinced that she was pregnant and, as this was 1970s Ireland,
this meant she “was most certainly, going to hell”. She was
terrified.

She couldn’t
talk to her parents about her fears, though, as the man who lived
down the road from her had warned her that if she disclosed
anything to them, they would dispatch her to a children’s
home.

For two years,
she and her little friend had been sexually abused by pirate radio
kingpin, Eamon Cooke. He would “give a certain nod” and they felt
no choice but to follow him over to his house and do as he
requested.

Cooke, who was
later sentenced to jail for 10 years for the abuse of Anne and
three others, has been linked to the unexplained disappearance of
Phillip Cairns in 1996.

Gardaí attended
the hospice where he died this year imploring him to tell them
where the nine year-old’s body is.

The DJ said he
didn’t know what they were talking about.By the time
Anne was nine, Cooke was taking her “naked into the bed” and
attempting to penetrate her.

Cooke’s abuse
turned Anne, who grew up in Inchicore in Dublin, into a “withdrawn,
angry and sulky” young girl who was “frightened of my position in
the family” as she was terrified of being kicked out. For years,
she would seek comfort in alcohol.

ANON Nov
29th, 2016 @ 12:09 PM

2/2...Her
lifeline has been the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre. It was her father
who rang them seeking help for his daughter when she eventually
rang him at work, aged 18, to tell him what she had
endured.

On RTÉ Radio
yesterday, Anne made an impassioned plea to the Government “to
restore rape crisis centre funding” which was cut sharply during
the economic downturn.

Cooke had
started off a nice man, letting Anne and her friends play in his
garage and giving them sweets and money when she was aged
7.

“But the nice
man withdrew and the threats began.”

The first time
he attempted to touch her inappropriately was when she watching a
home video that he had made of her and three of her friends dancing
the Can-Can,

“I was very
confused as nobody had ever touched me that way,” she said. “You
know as a child that it’s not right at a deep level.”

When he
approached her, Anne would flinch.

“I would hold
my breath when he was near me, especially when he was naked” as he
stank. “He was physically unbelievably dirty”.

At 18, she
reported him to the Gardaí and urged others to make a complaint but
“they were too afraid”.

He confronted
her in a shop where she was working after she made the Garda
complaint. He demanded 20 Rothmans. She refused to serve him and
picked up a knife.

He came back
twice more to intimidate her including one time with a little girl,
aged about 7.

The little girl
was in tears in the car before she came into the shop asked for 20
Rothmans. Horrified, she obliged.

“That crucified
me for 20 years, I wanted to grab the child,” she said.

An 82-year-old
former police officer has avoided jail again despite being
convicted of his 17th sex crime.

John Stanfield
had a two year jail sentence suspended for three years when he
appeared in the dock of Downpatrick Crown Court last
Thursday.

The pensioner
admitted three counts of committing an act outraging public
decency; five of breaching a Sexual Offences Prevention Order
(SOPO); four of engaging in sexual activity in front of a child
aged under 13.

The convictions
relate to incidents earlier this year when Stanfield fondled
himself in various supermarkets near his home on the Rosetta Road
in south Belfast. The incidents were caught on CCTV. After being
arrested he claimed to have been scratching his
psoriasis.

Despite being
convicted of 17 sex crimes since 2010 Stanfield has only ever
served four weeks in prison.

That was last
month when he was remanded in custody ahead of being given a
suspended sentence and freed on Thursday.

Stanfield is
now back living in the Rosetta area, much to the fury of neighbours
who had hoped to see the back of him.

Locals had
previously been in touch with DUP peer Lord Morrow who asked the
Department of Justice to carry out a serious case review because of
the paedophile’s constant re-offending. But the politician was told
that this was not possible because Stanfield’s latest crimes were
non-contact.

Our sister
paper the Sunday Life has also learned that despite being on the
sex offender’s register and subject to a SOPO the pervert was
allowed to go on a recent cruise. He is also a familiar sight in
cafes around the Ormeau Road.

A source said:
“It seems Stanfield cannot control himself and given his past
record it will only be a matter of time before he is in trouble
again.”

Stanfield also
has convictions for fondling himself in front of children on
beaches. He was nicknamed ‘Dirty John’ by teenagers in Rosetta
after buying Viagra-type sex pills from young dealers.

ANON Nov
28th, 2016 @ 08:24 PM

Adopted
people and natural mothers have given a mixed reaction to new
legislation granting them basic information and tracing
rights.

Under the
Adoption Bill, adopted people will, for the first time, have a
statutory entitlement to their birth certificate.

A new adoption
contact register will be placed on a statutory basis and operated
by Tusla, the Child and Family Agency and adopted people and birth
parents will be asked to register.

However,
parents can avoid registration or declare a “no contact”
preference.

In these cases,
adoptees will be asked to give an “undertaking” agreeing not to
contact or attempt to contact his/her birth parent or not to ask
anyone else to make or attempt to make contact on his/her
behalf.

This has been
done in an attempt balance between the birth parents’ right to
privacy and the identity rights of adopted people.

In previous
versions of the legislation, this undertaking was referred to as a
“statutory declaration”. However, breaching a statutory declaration
is a criminal offence.

No mention is
made in the current Bill as to the penalties faced for those who
breach the undertaking.

Co-founder of
the Adoption Rights Alliance Susan Lohan said the group
“cautiously” welcomed the legislation but also had
concerns.

“We are very
concerned that the bill, at this stage, envisages that there may be
certain circumstances where the release of such information could
possibly “endanger the life of a person”.

We are also
appalled that some adopted people may be forced to sign
“undertakings” that they will not contact their natural parents or
other relatives and this appears to us to be a rebranding of the
much derided “statutory declaration”, she said.

Paul Redmond of
Paul Redmond of the Coalition of Mother and Baby Homes described
the bill as “overwhelmingly positive”.

“Illegally and
informally adopted people will finally have rights in Ireland after
decades of being treated as third class citizens.

However, the
six-month lead in means hundreds of adoptees and natural mothers
will be reunited with headstones and it needs to be scrapped
immediately.

The
Constitutional and Supreme Court limitations on the Bill have
minimal practical implications in the real world with no penalties
for survivors,” he said.

In one case, a
teenage girl told the force she was sexually assaulted but had to
wait 17 days before she was assigned an officer.

Metropolitan
Police is putting children at risk because of "serious errors" in
its response to child sex abuse, inspectors have
found.

HM Inspectorate
of Constabulary (HMIC) found that 75% of the 374 cases it reviewed
were handled "inadequately" or "required improvement".

It said the
Met's handling of child abuse and sex exploitation cases were
inconsistent and lacked leadership.

The report
comes two weeks after an independent review found Scotland Yard
made "numerous errors" in the investigation into high-profile
paedophiles.

HM Inspector of
Constabulary Matt Parr said: "We found serious errors of judgement,
inconsistency, unacceptable delays and a lack of leadership which
meant that children are not being protected properly."

The Met did not
have a dedicated chief officer responsible for child protection,
HMIC found.

In one case, a
14-year-old girl told the force she had been given alcohol and
cigarettes before being sexually assaulted by a 30-year-old man she
met online.

ANON Nov
25th, 2016 @ 11:45 AM

2/2...An
officer was not assigned to the investigation until 17 days later,
during which time the man continued to message the teenager. HMIC
said this put her at risk, while the Met rated its handling as
"good".

The report
found there was a backlog of visits to registered sex offenders and
that the Met's IT systems for storing information on those at risk
of abuse was "fragmentary".

HMIC said the
force was the first it had inspected which did not have a dedicated
chief officer responsible for child protection.

Mr Parr added:
"This absence of oversight of this crucial area is unacceptable and
exacerbates the inconsistency we found in dealing with child
protection.

"Far too many
of the cases we looked at fell well short of expected standards and
meant that victims weren't protected, evidence was lost and
offenders continued to pose a risk to children."

The Met said it
aims to provide the best possible protection to children but was
"sorry that this has not always been the case, especially to the
children involved in the examples highlighted in this
report".

It added that
since the inspection it has revisited all the cases examined and
"identified no further harm to children".

HMIC has made a
series of recommendations, including London-wide oversight of child
protection.

.

ANON Nov
25th, 2016 @ 11:43 AM

Eyemouth sex
offender Robert Edwards left in charge of baby…

A sex offender
banned from having any contact with children was left alone in
charge of a one-year-old baby, a court has heard.

Robert Edwards,
62, of Eyemouth, admitted breaching the terms of his Sexual
Offences Prevention Order.

He had only
been released from prison a few days earlier when he was left in
charge of the child in Jedburgh on Wednesday.

He was jailed
for 200 days at Selkirk Sheriff Court.

The court heard
how he had been invited to stay at the home of a friend in Jedburgh
shortly after his release from prison.

Procurator
fiscal Graham Fraser said his friend and another woman, who had the
child with her, had then decided to go to Hawick leaving Edwards
with the infant.

He added that
it appeared the baby's mother had been unaware that Edwards was a
sex offender.

Mr Fraser
described the offence as a "spectacular" breach of the order and
said it was concerning as Edwards had a previous conviction for
assaulting a child of a similar age.

Social workers
were tipped off that he was alone in the house with the child and
the police were called.

Defence lawyer
Fiona Hamilton said the child was meant to be watched by a
neighbour who was unable to do so.

She said
Edwards thought the two women were only going to a nearby shop for
20 minutes and was unaware they had gone to Hawick.

Ms Hamilton
said he had tried to comply with the order and there was no
planning involved in being in contact with the child.

She added: "He
did not want to say no."

Sheriff Peter
Paterson jailed him for 80 days and added another 120 days for an
unexpired part of his previous prison sentence after being released
early.

Earlier this
year Edwards was jailed for 12 months after a jury at Selkirk
Sheriff Court convicted him of speaking to two children aged five
and two at a bus stop.

Then, on a bus
journey between Berwick and Eyemouth, he also offered them money
and sweets which breached the terms of his Sexual Offences
Prevention Order.

ANON Nov
25th, 2016 @ 11:39 AM

Birmingham
children's services: 'Serious failings' remain…

Birmingham City
Council is still failing to do enough to protect vulnerable
children but there are signs of improvement, a report
says.

Its children's
services are still inadequate, an Ofsted inspection report
concluded, and inspectors said too many children had been
identified "as being at risk of immediate harm".

Inspectors
identified "serious and widespread failings" in some
services.The council
said it was still part-way through a three-year improvement
plan.

The city's
children's services has held an inadequate rating since
2008.

Criticisms
include "inconsistent" work to tackle sexual exploitation of
children, with inspectors concluding "much (of the work) is
poor".

Services for
children missing from home or care were also described as poor,
while disabled children in need of help were having to wait too
long for support.

Referrals for
domestic abuse were found to be "high" at more than 3,000 per
month.

'Not
enough'...

Inspectors said
improvement was also needed to support and plan the care of 94
unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.

But Ofsted also
found "a sharper focus on front-line services" and a more stable
workforce following successful measures to keep hold of social
workers.

The inspection
found "progress" in the adoption service, work with care leavers,
looked-after children and tracking youngsters who were missing
education.

The council,
which welcomed the report, said its plans to spin-off the
children's services department as a voluntary trust were
continuing.

Cabinet member
responsible for children's services Brigid Jones said she saw "this
as a positive report in the context of where we expected to
be".

A Department
for Education spokesman said: "Birmingham City Council has made
improvements to the way it runs its children's services, but this
progress has not yet gone far enough, fast enough

ANON Nov
21st, 2016 @ 03:45 PM

Man jailed
for 13 years for sexual abuse…

A Waterford man
has been jailed for 13 years for sexually abusing his nephew in the
1980s and raping the victim's sister a decade later.

The victims
were aged four to five when their uncle began abusing
them.

The abuse came
to light after the youngest victim went to gardaí in 2012. Shortly
afterwards her brother also made a complaint.

The brother
explained in a victim impact statement that he wanted to come
forward sooner "but the words would just not come
out."

He said the
abuse stayed secret "until my little sister said the dreaded
words."

"I will have to
ask myself for the rest of my life why I kept the abuse secret," he
said.

"My siblings
will suffer for the rest of their life but at least we will no
longer suffer in silence and that is because my sister was brave
enough to speak out."

His younger
sister, who was four when her uncle started molesting her, told the
court she would think of ways to kill herself almost every day as a
result.

"It impacts
every single part of your life," she told the court.

"Trying to
describe what it does to you is like trying to describe colour to a
blind person. It's a massive secret you feel you have to keep to
yourself."

She said that
she fell into drug and alcohol abuse and nearly tore her family
apart.

She is now in a
stable loving relationship but that "a word or a song can bring me
right back to that horrible place."

She said that
no sentence will give her her childhood back.

"Being sexually
abused should never be hidden," she added.

"The truth
always comes out in the end." of a trial.

ANON Nov
21st, 2016 @ 03:42 PM

2/2...Warning: Graphic
detail below

The 47-year-old
accused pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to rape, oral
rape, sexual assault and indecent assault on the two victims
between 1988 and 2003 in Waterford.

The man, who
cannot be named to protect his victim's identity, has a mild
intellectual disability and there were some initial doubts as to
whether he was fit to stand trial on the charges.

A doctor's
report stated he might not cope well with time alone in his
cell.

Mr Justice
Patrick McCarthy said the young woman's victim impact report made
grim reading and that the abuse had a "grievous effect" on her but
that she seemed to be an extremely brave young woman.

He said her
brother's statement showed his regard for his sister and said he
should not feel guilty.

He said the
most striking feature of the case was the young age of the
complainants when the "horrific abuse" began.

During the
sentence hearing the court heard that in one garda interview the
accused man admitted molesting his niece but when pressed said this
involved rubbing shoulders with her while they were
dancing.

A local Garda
said the man started abusing his nephew in the late 1980s when the
boy was five or six years old. Most of the incidents occurred when
the boy was sent up to the accused's bedroom to get him out of
bed.

He began
molesting and raping the girl a decade later when she was visiting
the house.

On one occasion
he anally raped her and put the corner of a pillow in her mouth to
stop her from screaming.

Defence counsel
Colman Cody SC said the man has lived a very sheltered, isolated
life and has never had a job.

He asked the
judge to consider the man's guilty plea which saved the victim's
the stress.

ANON Nov
21st, 2016 @ 12:19 PM

1/2...Warblington with
Emsworth vicar resigns over sex acts with schoolgirl…

A vicar has
resigned after an investigation found he engaged in sexual acts
with a schoolgirl.

Rev Simon
Sayers, of the Warblington with Emsworth parish, Hampshire, was
arrested over an allegation of indecent assault, in London in the
1990s.

Police did not
charge him, but an internal church investigation found his
behaviour with the 16-year-old abused his position of
trust.

He has been
banned from ministry for five years by the Church of
England.

The
Metropolitan Police arrested the vicar in January 2015 after it was
informed of alleged offences that took place in the Islington area
when he was in parish ministry there in 1995.

Because of the
2015 police investigation he was suspended from the Church of
England, but in April 2015 he was told by police he would face no
further action.

However, a
complaint was made to the Church that same month, prompting it to
carry out its own investigation.

At its
conclusion, the Bishop of London, the Right Reverend Richard
Chartres, found the vicar "engaged in conduct unbecoming a clergy
person and inappropriate for a married man" and prohibited him from
ministry for five years.

'Deeply
sorry'…

Mr Sayers
resigned from his post in London in 1995 after what he described
was a "brief 'above the waist' incident of a sexual nature, with
someone over the age of consent, and a brief kiss two days
later".

He later became
rector at the churches of Warblington with Emsworth where he served
for 12 years.

ANON Nov
21st, 2016 @ 12:04 PM

2/2...In a
statement, Mr Sayers said: "I have always believed that my
behaviour in 1995 was wrong and fell below the high standards
required of a Christian leader, and

I am deeply
sorry for the sadness the incident and its investigation has
caused."

A spokesman
from the Church of England Diocese of Portsmouth said Mr Sayers had
admitted "his part in initiating that sexual contact".

It added: "The
bishop's penalty reflects both the seriousness of the Rev Simon
Sayers' behaviour on those occasions and of breaching the trust of
a young person who had been in his pastoral care for some
years.

"During the
legal process, the Bishop of Portsmouth has visited the parish
several times to offer his support to parishioners.

"The bishop and
his staff have given practical help to the parish, its clergy and
officers through this difficult period and will continue to do
so."

Congregation
walk-out...

Parishioners
and residents of Emsworth have shown support for Mr
Sayers.

When the
resignation announcement was made in church on Sunday, several
members of the congregation and choir walked out.

Parishioner
Norman Peers said: "Yes, the church has standards but the church
also preaches a message of grace, forgiveness and pastoral
care.

"These things
seem to be sorely lacking in the heavy-handed response by church
authorities.

The hierarchy
has turned its back on a much-loved man after years of sacrificial
service."

ANON Nov
21st, 2016 @ 11:58 AM

St Patrick’s
Cathedral criticised for response to child abuse…

There have been
calls for the Church of Ireland to set up an “outreach” service for
all pupils of St Patrick’s Choir School who would have had contact
with convicted child abuser Patrick O’Brien.

Patrick O’Brien
was a member of the congregation at St Patrick’s Cathedral and
treasurer of the independent fundraising body the Friends of St
Patrick’s Cathedral over a 30-year period.

Last month, the
76-year-old pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to 48
sample counts of child abuse at various locations across the State,
including St Patrick’s Cathedral.

On Friday, St
Patrick’s Cathedral said it deeply regretted that children were
sexually abused by O’Brien.

However, one of
O’Brien’s victims, Kerry Lawless, said he is unhappy with the
language used in the cathedral’s statement, which appeared to
distance O’Brien from cathedral management.

Mr Lawless said
that in 2004 he spoke to the former dean of the cathedral, Robert
MacCarthy, because of the continued presence of O’Brien at the
cathedral 15 years after he was given a suspended sentence for
abusing Mr Lawless.

O’Brien was
subsequently removed from his role as an unpaid volunteer guide at
the cathedral.

Mr Lawless said
he wanted an end “to the fudge” that O’Brien had been a
volunteer.

He said he also
wanted the cathedral to contact each of the cathedral school
choristers who may have been in contact with O’Brien over the 30
years that he was associated with the cathedral.

Mr Lawless said
he hoped any further victims would be offered support.

The Church of
Ireland rector of Celbridge parish, Canon Stephen Neill, has also
called for the Church of Ireland to “reach out to all [O’Brien’s]
victims.

The canon
criticised the cathedral’s statement as being mired in “legalese
and damage limitation”.

He said that
what was needed was “a proper apology”.

ANON Nov
21st, 2016 @ 11:56 AM

Belfast man
admits raping 12-year-old girl and making her
pregnant…

Conaire
Adams-Whyte confessed at a sitting of Belfast Crown
Court.

The 20-year-old
from the Springfield Road area of west Belfast was freed on bail
and is now living at a secret address after being threatened by
dissident republicans.

He is also
banned from having any contact with a second son who he fathered at
the same time.

Adams-Whyte
pleaded guilty at a court sitting last Wednesday.

His admission
means new details can be reported about the way he took advantage
of his schoolgirl victim.

The sex
offender, who also uses the nickname 'Mitch', has a female relative
who was good friends with the 12-year-old's mother.

The woman was
supposed to be baby-sitting the child, but was not at home when she
was dropped off at her house in July 2015.

However, Whyte
was inside the property and he raped the schoolgirl, who told her
mother what happened afterwards.

The sex
attacker was arrested and denied even touching his
victim.

As part of
their investigation detectives took DNA samples from him -
something that would later prove crucial in determining his
guilt.

Two months
after her rape, the 12-year-old found out she was
pregnant.

Adams-Whyte was
arrested a second time, and once again denied any
wrongdoing.

But when the
baby was born earlier this year it was DNA tested and he was found
to be the father.

He was
immediately charged with rape and last Wednesday, a full 16 months
after sexually assaulting the vulnerable schoolgirl, he finally
admitted his guilt.

Not only will
Adams-Whyte be prevented from having anything to do with the child
he fathered, he is banned from seeing a second son he had with his
ex-girlfriend just months earlier.

Adams-Whyte has
also been told he is no longer welcome in west Belfast, and is
understood to be under threat from dissident
republicans.

One source told
the Sunday Life: "Conaire will be risking his life if he comes back
here, the community is outraged at his behaviour. Not only was his
victim just 12 years old, she is also extremely
vulnerable.

"That b*****d
took advantage of that, raped her, got her pregnant, then denied
being the father until DNA evidence proved otherwise."

A man carried
out indecent assaults on two of his daughters when they were moved
to a care home, Tullamore Circuit Court has heard.

Patrick
O'Donoghue, Ballygaddy, Kilcolman, Birr, now aged 74, began abusing
the girls when they were aged four and two.

The abuse began
in 1970 and continued for ten years.

A sentencing
hearing was told the girls' mother had been taken into psychiatric
care following the birth of her fourth child.

The abuse began
in the family home and continued at a care home where the victims
were sent.

Judge Keenan
Johnson said he will sentence O'Donoghue on 25
November.

However as it
will be a custodial sentence, he placed O'Donoghue into immediate
custody.

ANON Nov
17th, 2016 @ 03:28 PM

Vaccine
trial victim to lodge complaints over altered file…

One of the
victims of the Bessborough vaccine trial is to make a formal Garda
complaint after it emerged files were altered in 2002.

On Tuesday, the
Irish Examiner revealed the files of mothers and children used in
the 1960/61 4-in-1 vaccine trial were altered in 2002 just weeks
after the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse sought discovery
of records from the religious order running the home.

Mari Steed was
born in Bessborough in 1960 and subsequently adopted in the
US.

Her natural
mother’s file is one of those listed as having been changed. She
plans to make a formal complaint to the gardaí and Data Protection
Commissioner.

“Now that it’s
been confirmed the information in my file has been altered, I feel
I have an obligation to make both a Garda and data protection
complaint.

How many other
files, not even relevant to the vaccine trials, may have been
altered?

People have a
right to know this. I am awaiting legal advice on jurisdiction for
the Garda filing and then will make both complaints as soon as
possible,” she said.

Ms Steed also
said Tusla, which now holds the records, had “an ethical, moral,
and public interest” in contacting all of the people it can confirm
were part of a trial.

The Irish
Examiner put a series of questions to the Sisters of the Sacred
Hearts of Jesus and Mary in relation to the document. It declined
to answer any of them.

A statement
from Ruairí Ó Catháin solicitors, representing the order, stated it
had “no immediate knowledge of any specific event” concerning
alterations made to records.

In a separate
statement, the order said it wished to “categorically state that no
documents were altered” and that it would deal with the Mother and
Baby Homes Commission of Investigation on all such
matters

ANON Nov
17th, 2016 @ 03:14 PM

Granddaughter relieved at
death of abuser, ex-lord mayor of Cork …

The
granddaughter of a former lord mayor of Cork city has said she is
relieved that her abuser is dead, but remains angry that Cork City
Council expressed condolences following the death of the
86-year-old.

Waiving her
right to anonymity, Elaine Murray said Cork City’s councillors’
condolences were a “slap in the face”. She said: “I am so upset
that he was even mentioned .”

John Murray of
Gregg Road, Cork, was jailed for a year in 2013 after he was found
guilty of five counts of sexually assaulting his granddaughter
while she was in her teens at dates between March 1996 and October
1998.

Saying the
abuse had “consumed” and “tainted” her adult life, she told Cork’s
Red FM: “There has been such a divide in our family that for other
members of the family this is a relief. It is a relief that he is
gone.”

She went on: “I
knew I couldn’t airbrush history. I never attempted to airbrush
history.

His name is
still on plaques in the city and I appreciate that. The trial was
extremely hard. It was all over the media. It was national
news.

‘Very
lenient’

“It was a
horrible experience. It was horrific. I was happy he received a
custodial sentence at all because these cases are so hard to
prove.

But I thought
it was very lenient and he was released after nine
months.”

Ms Murray
previously persuaded the local authority to remove a picture of her
grandfather from public display: “We had to challenge them to take
it down.

There were
numerous meetings before it was taken down.

“The photograph
for me was a very big deal. I would be in and out of City Hall a
lot and I just didn’t want to have to see that
photograph.

And I didn’t
want other victims of abuse to have to look at a photograph of a
sex offender.”

Giving evidence
during his four-day trial at Cork Circuit Criminal Court, the
retired taxi driver and former Labour city councillor denied the
allegations, saying he had been shocked and disgusted by
them.

ANON Nov
16th, 2016 @ 10:54 AM

Copy and
Paste...http://www.irishexaminer.com/viewpoints/analysis/bessborough-we-have-right-to-know-the-truth-430564.html

ANON Nov
15th, 2016 @ 12:20 PM

1/2...Mother
and baby home group backs call for forced adoptions
inquiry…

Call made in
letter to Taoiseach by a former top official with HSE child and
family services

“Sean Ross
Abbey in Roscrea, Tipperary, which was a mother and baby home
operated by the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary from
1930 to 1970”.

A call for a
commission of inquiry into forced adoptions has been strongly
supported by the Coalition of Mother And Baby Home Survivors
(CMABS).

The call was
made in a letter to Taoiseach Enda Kenny by former assistant
national director of child and family services with the Health
Service Executive, Phil Garland.

He was also
director of child protection in the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin
from 2003 to 2009.

There was
“undeniable evidence of cases of forced adoption within the mother
and baby homes that had been uncovered as a result of the Magdalene
inquiry” which published its report in February 2013, he
said.

In a statement,
the CMABS said “we applaud Mr Garland, who is currently going
public with a number of very serious allegations about senior civil
servants and ministers knowing about an explosive internal report
into forged infant mortality rates, illegal adoptions and
industrial scale child trafficking inside and outside of mother and
baby homes”.

It continued
that “CMABS understands there are many more serious matters to be
revealed by Mr Garland, who has recently founded a charity for the
survivors of church and State abuse in Ireland and
abroad.”

ANON Nov
15th, 2016 @ 12:17 PM

2/2...Sunrise
Organisation…

Mr Garland is a
director of the charity, the Sunrise Organisation, which was set up
in Dublin last August.

In conjunction
“with Mr Garland’s revelations”, the CMABS posed questions of its
own.

“Who knew about
the internal Tuam/Bessboro report prepared for the
Magdalene/McAleese inquiry reporting mortality rates in two mother
and baby homes and when did they know about it?”

“Did [then
minister for children] Francis Fitzgerald know about the
Tuam/Bessboro report when she was minister for
children?

“Minister
Fitzgerald was also handed a separate private report into the sky
high infant mortality rates at three mother and baby homes (‘Report
into Adoption In Ireland since 1922 and Bessboro,

Sean Ross Abbey
and Castlepollard Mother and Baby Homes&rsquo in July 2013,
several months before the Tuam 800 story broke. Why did the
minister bury that report and was it also with knowledge of the
HSE’s Tuam/Bessboro report?”

CMABS also
asked: “Did Ministers James Reilly and Charles Flanagan know about
the internal HSE report, and when did they know?”

CMABS includes
Adoption Rights Now, the Bethany Home Survivors, Beyond Adoption
Ireland, Adopted Illegally Ireland and the Castlepollard Mother
& Baby Home group, and is in equal partnership with the
Adoption Coalition Worldwide.

ANON Nov
15th, 2016 @ 12:15 PM

Church of
Ireland appoints child protection officer …

A new child
protection officer for the Republic of Ireland has been appointed
by the Church of Ireland.

Gabriel
Chrystal is originally from Sligo but has been involved with police
work since 2002 and has been part of the child protection team in
both the Metropolitan Police in London and Thames Valley
Police.

Gabriel
Chrystal brings range of experience from work with police forces in
Britain

From his work
with both he brings a broad range of experience in family support
and child protection, including case management and investigation,
and he has also specialised in the provision of training
programmes.

Mr Chrystal
will be based at Church of Ireland House in Dublin.

Provide
advice

With Margaret
Yarr, Church of Ireland child protection officer for Northern
Ireland, his role will be to provide advice and support to the
church in the implementation and development of its child
protection policy, Safeguarding Trust.

Welcoming Mr
Chrystal, Church of Ireland Archbishop Michael Jackson of Dublin
said: “the church’s work in the area of child protection is very
important to our life as a church community and helps to provide a
safe environment in which ministry with children can be creatively
and effectively explored.

“I offer
Gabriel my congratulations on his appointment and know that he will
be welcomed by the wider church as he begins his work with
us.”

ANON Nov
15th, 2016 @ 12:10 PM

1/2...Savile
case led woman to report sex abuse…

A woman
molested by her brother as a child finally reported the abuse when
the Jimmy Savile cases came to light.

Thomas Moran,
aged 52, of Daingean, Co Offaly, was convicted by a jury last March
of 13 counts of indecently assaulting his sister Roisin Moran
between January 1981 and June 1984.

Ms Moran was
just 8 when the abuse started.

Following that
trial at the Central Criminal Court, Moran pleaded guilty to seven
charges of indecently assaulting another sister, Dolores McIntyre,
between April 1980 and September 1983, when she was aged between 12
and 15.

Both women
waived their right in court to anonymity.

Sentencing
Moran to three years imprisonment with the final 12 months
suspended,

Mr Justice
Robert Eager paid tribute to the “determination and bravery” of the
sisters for reporting the sexual abuse.

They faced
“tremendous upheaval” in their family after coming forward with the
abuse, along with guilt at the knowledge they had each suffered in
silence, he said.

Neither sister
was aware of the abuse the other had suffered until Ms Moran had a
nervous breakdown in 2000 and told family members what her brother
did to her.

She eventually
reported her brother to Gardaí in 2012 after the Savile sex abuse
case came to light.

The court
heard, as a child, she had been a big fan of Savile and had written
to him.

ANON Nov
15th, 2016 @ 12:08 PM

2/2...The
court heard the children were from a family of eight
siblings.

The abuse
started shortly after the death of their father, when Moran assumed
the role of “man of the house”, said Mr Justice Eager. Moran was
aged between 16 and 19 when he abused his little
sisters.

Mr Justice
Eager noted Moran was a child himself during some of the offending
and that he was “utterly ill-equipped” to take on the role of
filling his father’s shoes. He accepted Moran was extremely
unlikely to reoffend.

Moran cried and
hugged family members before being returned to
custody.

The court heard
he never came to adverse Garda attention over the following 30
years.

He is married
and worked in construction until being made redundant in
2010.

A number of
testimonials were handed into court, including one from another
sister.

The trial had
heard Roisin Moran was first assaulted when her brother asked her
to bring some sandwiches to him when he was working on a bog.
Similar abuse then took place between two and three times a
week.

The abuse ended
shortly after Ms Moran attended a sex education class in school and
warned him she would shout if he came near her again.

“This court
would like to pay tribute to her for her determination and bravery
in giving evidence against her brother,” said Mr Justice
Eager.

“It took great
courage to give evidence against him in the face of his
denial.”

After Ms Moran
revealed her abuse, Dolores McIntyre came forward with similar
allegations.

She said she
was “overcome with guilt” to discover Ms Moran, four years younger,
had also been abused.

ANON Nov
15th, 2016 @ 12:05 PM

Big brother
and protector’ sexually abused little sister…

A Dublin man
who as a teenager abused his sister has been jailed for six
years.

Brian Butler,
now aged 31, began abusing his sister when he was 14 and continued
until he was 17. His sister was aged between 9 and 12 at the
time.

His sister, who
has waived her right to anonymity, told the court that her family
had been torn apart and destroyed by the abuse.

She told the
court she felt as if her brother was treated as the
victim.

Butler, of
Moyclare Close, Baldoyle, pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal
Court to sexual assault and oral rape of Leanne Butler at their
family home on dates betweenJanuary 2000
and December 2002.

The abuse came
to light after his sister told a friend. Butler attended
therapeutic services for child sex offenders and a formal complaint
was not made to Gardaí until 2013.

His sister also
attended for counselling.

Mr Justice
Patrick McCarthy said “Ms Butler had given harrowing evidence in
relation to her childhood, which had undoubtedly been blighted by
the abuse and caused significant long-term problems for
her.

Mr Justice
McCarthy imposed a six-year sentence and ordered four years post
release supervision to include participation in offence focused
work and a victim awareness program.

In her victim
impact statement Leanne Butler, now aged 26, said she had been a
happy child “without a care in the world” and that Butler had been
her favourite person “my big brother and protector”.

ANON Nov
15th, 2016 @ 12:03 PM

1/2...Bessborough Mother
and baby vaccine trial files altered…

The files of
vaccine trial victims in Bessborough Mother and Baby Home were
altered in 2002 just weeks after the Commission to Inquire into
Child Abuse sought discovery of records from the order running the
home.

Material
obtained by the Irish Examiner under Freedom of Information shows
that changes were made to the records of mothers and children used
in the 1960/61 4-in-1 vaccine trials.

The Commission
to Inquire into Child Abuse (CICA) had sought discovery of the
records from the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary on
July 22, 2002. An affidavit was sworn on October 3, 2002, and on a
number of later dates in 2002 and 2003.

The document
listing the changes opens with: “8.8.02 Checked the 20 files.” This
is immediately followed by: “9.8.02 Made the changes.”

The changes
made to files Nos 5, 8, 11, 12, and 15 to 20 are then
detailed.

The changes
include:

:: The
alteration of discharge dates of mothers (by a period of one year
and two years);

:: The changing
of discharge dates of children;

:: The changing
of admission dates of mothers;

:: The
alteration of the age of a mother (by two years);

:: The
alteration of dates of adoption;

:: The changing
of baptism dates and location of baptism;

:: The
insertion of certain named locations and information into admission
books.

A data
protection request released to Bessborough vaccine trial victim
Mari Steed in 2011 also confirms this timeline.

A file listing
details about both her and her natural mother was created on August
6, 2002.

This was done
following a request “for Solicitor re Vaccine”. Ms Steed’s natural
mother is listed as “No 19 on Doctor’s List”.

The record
lists “All Counties DUBLIN” above discharge information pertaining
to her mother.

The document
listing the changes notes that this information was inserted into
Ms Steed’s original file.

The entry
reads: “No 19 [house name redacted] Crossed out the Indoor Reg
entry as it is corssed (sic) out in the Book. Inserted DUBLIN after
All Counties.”

Given that the
trial took place between December 1960 and November 1961, this
change has the effect of placing this woman in Bessborough during
the period her child was vaccinated.

If she was, in
fact, discharged from Bessborough at the date given in 1960, she
could not have been present to consent for her child to have been
part of the vaccine trial.

The question of
consent was the key issue being examined by the CICA’s Vaccines
Module before it was shut down in 2003 following a Supreme Court
ruling.

The Irish
Examiner put a series of questions to the the Sisters of the Sacred
Hearts of Jesus and Mary in relation to the document. It declined
to answer any of them.

A statement
from Ruairí Ó Catháin solicitors, representing the order, stated
that it had “no immediate knowledge of any specific event”
concerning alterations made to records.

“We are in
contact with the commission in regard to the Mother and Baby Homes
Investigation, which is having our full co-operation. For the
present, as is appropriate, we will be dealing directly with the
commission on all related matters,” said a statement.

In a separate
statement, the order said it wished to “categorically state that no
documents were altered”.

“In your recent
correspondence, you are suggesting that something illegal or
inappropriate had occurred in regard to the documents to which you
refer,” said the statement. “This is entirely untrue; and we will
continue to deal directly with the official commission on all such
matters.”

The Mother and
Baby Homes Commission has copied all the records relating to
Bessborough and is currently analysing them alongside the other 17
institutions being examined. Its final report is expected in
February 2018.

ANON Nov
15th, 2016 @ 11:56 AM

Mother of
teen who was abused by foster carer slams sentence…

The mother of a
vulnerable teenager sexually abused by her disgraced foster father
has criticised his suspended sentence and said coming forward was
"not worthwhile".

Patrick Feighan
walked free from court despite having sexually assaulting the then
teenager as she suffered a fit.

In a statement
afterwards, the victim's mum lambasted the 57-year-old's two year
jail term which was suspended for three years at Newry Crown
Court.

"My daughter
has been left very upset," she said.

"This is not a
deterrent and it is not justice.

"There are
conditions attached to this sentence which she supports but a
suspended sentence has little meaning to a victim.

"In the
difficult circumstances of coming forward after sexual abuse, this
makes it all seem not worthwhile."

judge Melody
McReynolds told Feighan his behaviour was a "predatory breach of
trust of a young person who, to your knowledge, had an emotional
and physical disadvantage".

As well as the
jail term, Feighan was ordered to sign the police sex offenders
register for 10 years, banned from working with children and made
the subject of a five year sexual offenders prevention
order.

That order bars
Feighan from having unsupervised contact with children, loitering
near child centred facilities and from conducting any relationship
without disclosing his convictions.

Last month
Feighan, originally from Armagh but now with an address at
Tavistock Avenue in St Albans in England, pleaded guilty to two
counts of sexually assaulting his victim on April 28 last
year.

She bravely
waived her right to anonymity so that Feighan can be named and
shamed.

The court heard
how Feighan, who had been involved in the foster care of "upwards
of 50 children" over 16 years, first molested the teenager by
groping her breast while the girl was in the throes of a seizure on
her bed.

She "swiped"
his hand away, and prosecuting lawyer Geraldine McCullough
described how after the fit she would usually feel tired, so having
gone to the bathroom, she went back to her bed to lie
down.

As she lay on
the bed facing towards the wall, Feighan sexually assaulted her,
believing she was asleep.

However,
Feighan's DNA profile was uncovered on a wipe the victim used
afterwards.

The court heard
that Feighan had since split from his wife and had moved out of
Northern Ireland with no intention to return.

ANON Nov
14th, 2016 @ 12:33 PM

HSE may be
forced to release Grace reports…

The Government
is unlikely to accept a partial publication of two HSE reports into
the Grace foster abuse scandal and may attempt to force their
immediate and full release if they are not made public this
week.

Pressure is
building on the HSE to publish the reports ahead of a
coalition-imposed deadline of Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the
whistleblower who first highlighted the case has said the reports
must be made public.

In response to
the state-commissioned Conor Dignam report late last
month,

Disabilities
Minister Finian McGrath said he was giving the HSE until this
Wednesday to release its own inquiries into what
happened.

While the
HSE-commissioned reports by Conal Devine Associates and Resilience
Ireland have been completed since 2012 and 2014, the HSE has
repeatedly said gardaí have warned that publication may impact on
future criminal cases.

However, the
Dignam Report concluded publication will not “fatally” wound any
criminal cases, a view that led Mr McGrath to impose this week’s
deadline.

A senior
government figure said at the weekend the Coalition will “not
accept” any refusal to release the documents or any partial
publication and will attempt to force their release if the matter
is not resolved.

The draft terms
of reference for the now-imminent state inquiry into the Grace
foster home abuse are due to go before cabinet in two weeks’
time.

Mr McGrath and
attorney general Máire Whelan met to discuss the terms last
Thursday and are due to meet again this week.

While allowing
a wider-ranging inquiry, the terms are likely to seek an interim
report within months, specifically on what happened to a woman
given the pseudonym Grace, who, for still unknown reasons, remained
at the home from 1989 to 2009, despite the fact that all placements
at the home were meant to end in 1995 due to serious abuse
concerns.

Speaking to the
Irish Examiner, the whistleblower who first raised the concerns
said an interim report would be welcome and called on the HSE to
adhere to this Wednesday’s deadline to release both unpublished
reports.

Meanwhile, it
has emerged the child and family agency Tusla found substance to at
least 33 allegations of abuse by foster carers in the past 15
months.

Figures
provided by Tusla show 24 abuse allegations nationwide last year
were “found to have substance”, while in the first quarter of this
year, there were another nine allegations including three in Cork
alon

ANON Nov
14th, 2016 @ 12:26 PM

1/2...Fury
as child rapist was allowed to live beside six Belfast
schools…

A serial child
rapist is now back behind bars for allegedly breaching the
conditions of his early release licence.

But questions
are being asked, not only about the decision to free Leo Hoad, but
also why he was put in a Belfast hostel a short distance from six
schools and youth clubs.

Sunday Life has
learned that until his arrest in July, the Fermanagh-born
paedophile was living at Thompson House on the Antrim
Road.

It had a
£2million extension added to it in 2012, increasing fears that more
perverts would be moved in.

After
frightened locals staged protests at its doors, they claim to have
struck a verbal deal with its Presbyterian Church owners that
dangerous sex offenders would not stay at the hostel.

But that
agreement is now in tatters with the revelation that Leo Hoad was
housed there during the summer, and was arrested at the complex on
suspicion of breaching a Sexual Offences Prevention Order
(Sopo).

ANON Nov
14th, 2016 @ 12:24 PM

2/2...One
long-term Antrim Road resident told Sunday Life: “The
demonstrations were called off after we were assured that no
dangerous sex offenders would stay at Thompson House.

“People will be
shocked that a child rapist like Leo Hoad was living at the hostel
because it is surrounded by schools. The fact that he was arrested
for breaching his release licence proves that he is still
dangerous.”

There are 84
CCTV cameras monitoring Thompson House, and sex offenders are
confined to the building until 9.30am, and between 2pm and 4pm,
when schools are opening and closing.

But that did
not stop Leo Hoad being taken into custody by police on July 18
amid claims he had breached a Sopo.

The 38-year-old
appeared via video-link at Belfast Magistrates’ Court last Thursday
for an update on the case.

A Presbyterian
Church spokesman said that admissions to Thompson House are made by
the Probation Board after a thorough risk assessment
process.

He added: “The
safety of the local community is paramount and part of the regime
at Thompson House.

“That regime is
based on the risk assessment and is robustly monitored by staff and
by the designated risk manager, which is the advantage of having
approved accommodation that is monitored, totally accountable and
open to external inspection.”

Leo Hoad is
considered one of Northern Ireland’s most dangerous paedophiles,
having admitted 11 charges of rape and two indecent assaults
against two children.

The pervert was
aged 13 when he started an eight-year sex assault campaign against
his victims, who were aged just seven and eight when the abuse
began.

In 2012 Hoad,
who is on the sex offenders’ register for life, was sentenced to
seven years in prison and a further three years’ probation for his
sickening crimes.

He had been
living in Thompson House for only a matter of weeks before being
arrested for allegedly breaching the terms of his early
release

ANON Nov
11th, 2016 @ 06:31 PM

Jail for
mother Jasmine Gregory after baby drowned in bath…

A court hears
how baby Robyn Andrews-English drowned after being left
unsupervised in an adult bath.

A mother whose
baby daughter drowned after she was left alone in a bath has been
jailed for three years for her manslaughter.

Jasmine
Gregory, 24, forgot she had left Robyn Andrews-English unattended,
after drinking alcohol at their village home.

The
14-month-old baby died at the home in Kents Row, Grove, near
Wantage, Oxfordshire, at about 2pm on 7 August, 2014.

After being
taken to a nearby GP surgery, lifeless Robyn was rushed by
ambulance to hospital but was declared dead later that
afternoon.

Gregory was
convicted of her daughter's manslaughter and jailed following a
six-day trial at Oxford Crown Court.

Afterwards,
detectives said Gregory, of Ulfgar Road, Oxford, had never given a
full account of what happened.

Detective
Constable Andy Matheson, of Thames Valley Police, said: "This has
been a tragic case from the start.

"A young mother
has lost her young baby and the extended family have lost the
future they would have had with the child."

Prosecutor
Kirsty Allman said a "just outcome" had been achieved by the
jailing of Gregory.

Ms Allman said:
"This was not merely a terrible accident. Gregory was clearly
negligent in leaving Robyn unattended in the bath.

"Gregory
initially admitted to witnesses at the scene to leaving her baby in
the bath and being responsible for her death, but later replied 'no
comment' to police interviews and denied manslaughter, but was
found guilty despite her denials."

ANON Nov
10th, 2016 @ 03:39 PM

Church
volunteer jailed for 13 years for sexually abusing
boys…

A former Church
of Ireland volunteer has been sentenced to 13 years in prison for
sexually abusing 14 boys over a period of 40 years.

77-year-old
Patrick O'Brien from Knocklyon Road in Templeogue pleaded guilty to
51 sample charges out of a total of 159 abuse
offences.

He abused his
victims at numerous locations in Kildare, Westmeath, on his boat in
Galway and at St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin while people were in
church.

She said no
place or occasion was safe, no relationship valued and even the
children's homes and bedrooms offered no protection.

Even though he
was once caught and convicted in 1989, he continued to abuse and
rape children for another 15 years.

He sexually
abused children in the electrical room at St Patrick's Cathedral
while people prayed in the Church.

O’Brien also
committed his crimes on his boat in Loughrea, in his car taking
children for drives, in the car wash hidden by the foam, and in the
places where children have a right to believe they are safe such as
their homes, their grandparents' homes, their parents' bedrooms and
their own bedrooms.

He was arrested
in March 2014 and subsequently admitted what he had done, as far
back as 1974.

All his victims
were boys and all but one of them was abused and raped on numerous
occasions.

O’Brien
manipulated and controlled his victims, befriending their parents
and guardians to gain access to them, coercing and threatening them
to "keep their little secret".

To his younger
victims he gave sweets and treats while the older teenagers
received cigarettes, alcohol and even driving lessons.

ANON Nov
8th, 2016 @ 03:45 PM

1/2...'Errors' in Met's VIP
paedophile probe Operation Midland…

Numerous errors
were made in Scotland Yard's investigation into paedophile
allegations against VIPs, an independent review has
found.

The decision to
abandon Operation Midland should have been taken "much earlier",
Sir Richard Henriques said.

Five officers
have been referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission
following the review.

The Met Police
commissioner accepted "accountability for these failures" and
apologised to those involved.

Sir Bernard
Hogan-Howe said: "It is a matter of professional and personal
dismay that the suspects in the investigation were pursued for so
long when it could have been concluded much earlier.

"I am today
issuing a public apology to Lord Bramall, Lady Brittan and Harvey
Proctor for the intrusion into their homes and the impact of
Operation Midland on their lives."

He said the
public identification of suspects had compounded the harm of the
investigative failures.

Life
'ruined'...

The £2.5m
investigation was launched after claims that boys had been sexually
abused by public figures more than 30 years ago but it closed in
March without a single arrest.

::Operation
Midland, into claims boys were abused by a group of powerful men
from politics, the military and law enforcement agencies at
locations across southern England and in London in the 1970s and
1980s

::Operation
Yewtree, into sexual abuse allegations against the British media
personality Jimmy Savile and others

::Operation
Vincente, into a separate allegation that Lord Brittan raped a
19-year-old woman. No further action was taken in the
case

Lord Bramall,
92, is a former head of the Army who was told he would face no
further action under Operation Midland.

Lady Brittan
was married to former Home Secretary Lord Brittan, who died in
January 2015 without being told that the case against him had been
dropped.

Harvey Proctor
is a former MP, who was cleared of being part of an alleged VIP
Westminster paedophile ring. He has said the Met Police's inquiry
"irreparably ruined" his life.

The review
found 43 failings in Operation Midland, including believing the
complainant, a man known as "Nick", for too long; one officer
announcing that Nick's claims were "credible and true" and applying
for search warrants with flawed information.

Sir Richard
said: "The principal cause of the many failures in this
investigation was poor judgement and a failure to accurately
evaluate known facts and to react to them.

"A major
contributing factor was the culture that 'victims' must be
believed."

ANON Nov
7th, 2016 @ 12:09 PM

1/2...Sex
offender gets 18 years for rape and abuse…

A convicted sex
offender has been sentenced to 18 years for raping a boy and
sexually abusing another child 20 years later.

Associates of
the victims told Kenneth Cooke, aged 53, to “enjoy his time in
prison” and to “rot in there” as he was led away.

He is already
serving a nine-year sentence imposed in 2014 for the sexual abuse
of a female victim 20 years ago.

Cooke, of
Limekiln Green, Walkinstown, Dublin, pleaded guilty at Dublin
Circuit Criminal Court to 21 counts of sexually assaulting a boy
between January 2000 and July 2003 when the boy was aged between 11
and 13 .

He had pleaded
not guilty to 56 counts of indecent assault of another boy between
December 1980 and December 1985 and was convicted by a
jury.

Yesterday,
Judge Patricia Ryan imposed a nine-year sentence with four
suspended for abuse of the boy which began in 1980.

She also
imposed an 11-year sentence with two suspended for the abuse of the
second boy 13 years ago.

These will run
consecutive to each other but alongside his existing sentence,
meaning an effective prison term of 14 years.

Judge Ryan took
the unusual move of imposing consecutive terms because of the
“very, very, very serious” nature of the offending.

ANON Nov
7th, 2016 @ 12:07 PM

2/2...She
noted that the abuse of the boy in the 1980s began when the
nine-year-old victim was in a very vulnerable state after suffering
a family tragedy. It involved molesting the boy before moving on to
anally raping him.

Cooke finally
stopped abusing him when the boy got strong enough to fight him
off.

A local Garda
told Róisín Lacey, prosecuting, that the victim contacted Gardaí in
2014 and Cooke was arrested in July 2014. He denied all the
allegations and told

Gardaí the
victim was “telling lies, a pack of filthy Jesus
lies”.

In a victim
impact statement, the victim said in order to survive he tried to
“block everything out” but this meant he also blocked out his happy
childhood memories. “They are ruined, damaged and gone because of
this horrific demon,” he said.

“It will always
stay with me. I have survived, lived, to get justice for that
vulnerable little boy,” he said.

In 2000, Cooke
began abusing another child he had access to who was in fifth
class.

The abuse ended
in 2003 when the boy used his woodworking skills to fashion a lock
for his door to keep Cooke out.

The victim did
not tell anyone about the abuse until he made a formal complaint to
Gardaí last year. When questioned, Cooke initially denied the
allegation, saying the boy was a “loner with no
friends”.

He now wished
to convey an apology to his victim, Tara Burns, defending,
said.

Ms Burns said
Cooke was supported by family, including a wife and four-year-old
child. He was in poor health and had a stroke recently.

ANON Nov
7th, 2016 @ 12:01 PM

Fugitive sex
assault imam Hifiz Rahman jailed…

An imam who
fled the country after being convicted of historical sex attacks
has been jailed for eleven and a half years.

Hifiz Rahman,
58, was found guilty of five sexual assaults at Queens Cross mosque
in the West Midlands between March 1986 and August
1987.

He took a
flight from Birmingham Airport to Bangladesh the day after his
conviction last month.

Rahman was
sentenced in his absence at Wolverhampton Crown Court.

Judge Nicholas
Cartwright said the father-of-seven from Netherton, who had not
attended some of his trial because he claimed he was too unwell,
had deceived his victims and own solicitors by lying about being
sick.

'Strenuous
efforts'

Speaking about
the offences, he said: "What he did was a gross breach of the trust
placed in him."

The court
previously heard how Rahman, of Ballard Road, carried out "almost
daily" assaults on one victim.

One woman, who
was seven when the imam started assaulting her, said he was treated
like a "god" by people associated with the mosque in Cradley
Heath.

On one
occasion, when she threatened to report him, he invited himself
round to her parents' house for dinner, she said.

Rahman's
passport was surrendered before the trial but a second one, unknown
to solicitors, was used to fly to Dakar in Bangladesh.

Prosecution
barrister Peter Arnold said "strenuous efforts" were being made to
get him back to this country.

Vinny Bolina,
of the Crown Prosecution Service, said it was in dialogue with its
international division about the possibility of applying for an
extradition.

Speaking after
the sentencing, one of the victims said: "It's over for now, we
just need to get him back here to serve his time.

"His life is
over and mine can now restart."

Rahman was also
told to pay £5,590 in costs and banned from working with
children

A former police
superintendent has been jailed for 12 years for child sex offences
after he was finally exposed as a paedophile.

Gordon
Anglesea, 79, spent decades denying he was an abuser and even won a
court case in the 1990s in which he was awarded £375,000 damages
after similar allegations were made against him.

Now the former
North Wales Police officer is behind bars after being convicted of
four indecent assaults against two boys.

It follows an
investigation into claims of historical sex offences in the care
home system in North Wales.

The trial heard
how Anglesea used his position to physically and sexually abuse
youngsters - often troubled teenagers.

The
father-of-five from Colwyn Bay, was linked to a paedophile ring
that preyed on vulnerable boys in and around Wrexham in the 1970s
and 80s.

His recent
trial at Mold Crown Court centred on two men who explained how they
had been abused.

One described
being "passed around like a handbag" by a group of powerful
men.In a police
interview one of them said Anglesea, as a senior policeman, ensured
they could never speak out.

The victim told
investigators from the National Crime Agency: "Who can you trust?
You can't trust anybody, I can't trust anybody in my
life."

ANON Nov
7th, 2016 @ 11:56 AM

2/2...Another survivor,
known only as Michael, has spoken exclusively to Sky News about his
tormented childhood in the care homes and how he says Anglesea
sexually assaulted him.

Michael, who
gave evidence to the NCA investigation but was not part of the
court case, said: "Against great adversity we have now shown
courage and determination in standing up to him - he is literally a
monster.

"This man made
my life a personal hell, all along I thought it was something that
I had endured alone."

Anglesea's very
public denials saw him go to the High Court in London in 1994,
after several media organisations alleged he was part of the abuse
scandal in care homes in North Wales.

Journalist Dean
Nelson wrote one of the original articles claiming Anglesea had
abused his position of trust.

He told Sky
News Anglesea's conviction feels like a "bittersweet kind of
justice" because some victims are not here to see it.

He said: "They
weren't believed and the fallout from that was
catastrophic."One of the key
witnesses in the case, Mark Humphreys, killed himself.

"His marriage
broke up, he left his wife and young children and moved into a flat
and he hanged himself.

"Everywhere
these people turned for justice they didn't get it and they were
told the state and its apparatus didn't believe them.

"Now we know
they were right all along and there needs to be a reckoning for
that."

North Wales
Police have issued an apology to Anglesea's victims and their
families and said on his conviction "time has caught up with Gordon
Anglesea".

He added: "You
have shown no remorse for what you did or for the damage that you
have done to so many individuals."

Detectives
discovered coded diaries going back years charting what the judge
called Richards' "fascination for recording encounters with young
boys".

The judge said
he had no doubt Richards only became a scout leader "to get access
to young boys" and had also "grossly abused" his position as a
police officer for his own "sexual gratification".

ANON Nov
7th, 2016 @ 11:51 AM

2/2...Following the trial
it emerged he had been removed from a public-facing role in the
force following a complaint made against him in 2004, but he kept
his job.

He was kicked
out of the Scouts the same year, after the Scouts Association
learned of the allegation, after which he started going to swimming
baths, timing his visits with youngsters' swimming
lessons.

"For years he
watched and recorded the underwear and genitals of little boys
there getting changed," said Ms Moore.

However, the
54-year-old, of Tile Cross, Birmingham, who faced a further
accusation in 2000, was not charged and was able to continue
working as a police officer until his retirement.

Of his six
victims, six were assaulted after 2000.

It was only
when another allegation was made in 2014 that a fresh investigation
was launched.

A list of 35
males was found on his computer following a police raid on his
home. Officers tried to contact them all, many of whom went on to
lodge complaints against Richards.

West Midlands
Police referred itself to the Independent Police Complaints
Commission (IPCC) in May 2015 over its handling of the earlier
probes, but an inquiry was halted pending the outcome of the
criminal proceedings.

The force
apologised to Richards' victims with Assistant Chief Constable Alex
Murray admitting: "I think if we were able to do a really thorough
investigation then there's a chance we could have safeguarded
victims in the future."

Some of his
victims who were in court for Friday's sentencing said they had
lost all trust in "anyone or anything to do with the
police".

Earlier,
prosecutors said he could also lose up to 60% of his lucrative
police pension the proportion representing the public's
contribution to his retirement pot.

ANON Nov
3rd, 2016 @ 12:05 PM

1/2...Vigil
held in Tuam for residents of mother and baby home…

When PJ Haverty
joined a candle-lit walk into Tuam, Co Galway on Wednesday night,
he could only think of the distressed steps taken on the very same
route by his late mother, Eileen.

“For 5½ years
she was in and out of the town on foot to the mother and babies
home, begging for me to be returned to her,” Mr Haverty
said.

Mr Haverty was
one of more than 300 participants in a vigil which began at the
unofficial burial grounds for the former Bon Secours home on the
Dublin Road and continued to Tuam Town Square.

The vigil,
organised by artist Sadie Cramer and local historian Catherine
Corless, is part of a series of community events recognising the
legacy of the institution which housed unmarried mothers and their
children from the 1920s to 1961.

The excavation
has been conducted by archaeologists on behalf of the Commission of
Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes, with a five-week time
frame.

The commission
was unavailable for comment on Wednesday, but it has explained that
the purpose of examining a “sample of the site” is to “resolve a
number of queries in relation to interment of human remains at this
location”.

A geophysical
survey of the area was conducted in October 2015.

It was as a
result of the research by Ms Corless on death records for some 796
toddlers and babies in Tuam that the commission was established in
January 2015 by then health minister Dr James Reilly. Led by Judge
Yvonne Murphy, it is examining 14 mother and baby homes and four
county homes and is due to report in February 2018.

ANON Nov
3rd, 2016 @ 11:58 AM

2/2...Foster
parents...

Mr Haverty, who
now lives in Ballinamona in Menlough parish, is married with three
sons and farms land left to him by his foster parents.

With the
encouragement of his foster mother, he made contact with his birth
mother, Eileen, in Brixton, London, and met her on three
occasions.

He learned she
had taken a job in the local hospital, hoping to be reunited with
her son, and eventually made a “most saddening and heartbroken
journey” by ferry to London.

“Imagine the
cruelty she experienced,” he said, adding that his foster parents
had been very kind.

Fellow survivor
Peter Mulryan, who also attended the vigil, was in the home from
1944-1949.

He was fostered
as a five-year-old to a woman in her mid-70s and her son. He
endured suffering and beatings and would “dread when summer would
come as I would be hit with nettles”.

He met his
mother Brigid in 1975 and discovered that she had been in Tuam for
a year.

She was then
sent to the Magdalene Laundry in Galway city where she remained for
the rest of her life.

Two years ago,
through the work of Ms Corless, Mr Mulryan discovered that he
had

time soon
and that is not satisfactory.”

The commission
will examine why Grace was left for almost 20 years in a foster
home which was the subject of serious concerns over sexual
abuse.

She was placed
in the home in 1989 and remained there until 2009, despite the fact
that other foster children had been removed by 1996.

A total of 47
highly vulnerable children and young adults with intellectual
disabilities were placed in the same foster home between 1983 and
2013.

It is
understood Mr Dignam interviewed fewer than 10 people for his
inquiry.

He also met
three people who made protected disclosures about Grace’s
case.Minister for
State at the Department of Health Finian McGrath is expected to
bring Mr Dignam’s report to Cabinet within the next two
weeks.

Mr McGrath has
stressed to his Government colleagues two legal procedural matters
had to be dealt with before the report could be
considered.

The terms of
reference for the commission will not be decided for a number of
weeks. Mr Dignam’s report contains a number of recommended terms
but Mr McGrath is expected to add to them.

Fianna Fáil TD
John McGuinness has also strongly criticised the delay. “It is
deeply concerning.

We accept that
Conor Dignam needed time and space to complete his work but there
is no explanation for why there has been such an extraordinary
delay.”

ANON Nov
1st, 2016 @ 12:40 PM

Child
cruelty and neglect cases almost treble in five years…

The number of
cases of cruelty and neglect of children in Northern Ireland has
almost trebled over the last five years.

The PSNI
recorded 341 offences for cruelty to children and young people in
2015/16, compared to 116 cases in 2011/12.

There were
1,969 on the Child Protection Register in Northern Ireland, with
neglect among the most common reasons for
registration.

NSPCC Northern
Ireland head Neil Anderson called for increased support for
children who have suffered.

He said:
"Cruelty and neglect is one of the most prevalent forms of child
abuse in Northern Ireland and research shows it can lead to
long-term physical, psychological and behavioural issues in later
life.

"We know that
the effects can be devastating, and it's clear that, as a society,
we need to address this issue."

Cruelty and
neglect happens when an adult who has responsibility for a child
wilfully assaults, ill-treats, neglects, abandons or causes them
unnecessary suffering or injury.

Children may be
left hungry or dirty, without adequate clothing, shelter,
supervision, medical or health care or they may be put in danger or
not protected from physical or emotional harm.

Research by the
NSPCC estimates that for every child on the Child Protection
Register a further eight have suffered abuse.

Mr Anderson
added: "The Stormont Executive in its Programme for Government
needs to make a greater commitment to support children who have
suffered, with the development of clear guidelines on providing
them with timely therapeutic support.

"Through our
It's Time campaign the NSPCC is also calling for improved
therapeutic support so children who have experienced abuse can
begin to understand and recover from their experiences."